News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-11-03
A STRANGE ROMANCE.
1T is OF RESURRECTED CRIMI-
NAILS.
POIk's Case in TennesSee-Bu 4
Negro for White Defaultcr,
who Meanwhile Pursued a Quiet
Existence in Canada.

One of the most prominent politicians
of Tennessee, in speaking of the state
ment that the deceased Ex-State Treas
urer Polk has been la'ely seen in Mex
leo, said:
''The story that Polk has come to life
again is not surprising. We have had
number of cases of prominent crimi-
nails apparently dying just about the
time they were to be sent to the peni-
tentiary, and then turning up again in
other paris of the world. Polk, you
know, embezzled more than half mil
lion of the State funds, and when he
fled South he carried $50, 900 with him.
He was not nephew of Mrs. President
Polk, as has been stated, but he was the
son of a younger brother of the Presi-
dent himself, and President Polk speaks
of him in his will as his nephew and
adopted son. It was to him that James
vile after his wife's death, which, by
the way, has not yet occurred. Polk,
the State Treasurer, has had curious
career. He was very popular in East
Tennessee, and, being relative of the
President, had, Of course, the highest
social rank. He was in the Confederate
army, and when he was nominated for
State Treasurer only seven votes were
cast against him in the nominating CON
vention. The candidate who opposed
him was named Gosling, and it was a
curious coincidence that Gosling was
the man who captured him in Texas
after his flight and brought him back to
Nashville. Gosling left for Texas after
his defeat. He had been appointed
United States Marshal there, and it was
as such that he arrested his former
political opponent.
"Well, Polk was tried at Nashville
and was sentenced to twenty years in
the penitentiary. The case was taken to
the higher courts and Polk was admitted
to bail. Before the appeal was tried he
died-at least he appeared to do so-and
coffin was taken to the old family
cemetery and buried. The question of
whether he was actually an inmate of
this coffin remains to be proved.
There have been Il number of such
mysterious disappearances in East Ten
nessee. Two years before the war began
a prominent land agent was suspected
to be defrauding the Government out of
land claims and pensions coming out of
the war of 1872. The interior depart
ment sent out detective and he was
arrested and found to have stolen for
tune in this way. He was let out on
bail and went to Kansas for trip, from
whence the report soon came that he
was dead. A few days later a coffin was
sent rom Kansas to Tennessee, which
was said to contain his remains. A fI-
neral was held and the family attended
in the deepest mourning. That man is
living i'll the west to-day and it is an
open secret in Tennessee that his funeral
was fraud. He has changed his name,
is well off, and he occupies position of
trust.
Another case was that of Thomas G.. |
Boyd, during the second term of Grants |
Presidency, and the circumstances of |
his disappearance are as wildly roman
5ic as those of any yellow backed novel.
Boyd was the brother-in-law of Gen. |
Vaughan, the confederate officer. He I
was claim agent at Sweetwater, Tenn,
md he cheated the Government out of |
s150,000 by fraudulent claims. These |
claims were for pensions which he got (
or parties supposed to have been in the /
ate war, but which parties he never
saw, and the money sent for whom he |
for himself. The case was a |
notorious one, and his frauds were prac
Used with the boldest effrontery. At
me time through mistake he married
on paper the same woman to two differ
INT men by the same parson, on the
same day, and tried to get two pensions,
md it is my impression that he sue
,eeded. Such bungling was, however,
ound out. He was arrested, and his /
position in the community was such that |
leeasily obtained bail. {. /
''BefOre the trial took place he and
lis brother took a trip across the border
If the State into North Carolina, which
vas not far, as they lived in the corner /
If Tennessee, near the Georgia and
North Carolina line. A few days after
hey left the brother came back alone to
4 town nearest the mountains and said
hat himself and his brother had been
net in the mountains by party of
masked men, and that these men had
led him to a tree, and he had seen them
hoot his brother. After they had shot
lim from where he was standing, bound, /
lie could see them make fire and burn
he body. When they had left he had
to free himself, and he wanted
ome of the citizens to go back with him
md help him bring his brothers re-
Mains to the village, from whence they
,ould be transported home. Now, it
happened that among those who went
20 see the body was q doctor well versed
N anatomy. He said those charred
1ones We're not the bones of a white
nan, but those of a negro, and pro-
lounced the skull, which was thick and
far different from that
which the intellectual face of Thomas
=. Boyd must have covered. Boyd was
I, great Mason, and these whispered sus-
Dicions of the doctor led the Masonic
which had started ont in
apron and funeral gaTb, to turn back
and refuse to participate in the cere-
monies of burial. The funeral was car
ried out, however, without them. The
body was taken to the village, thence
,arried to Sweetwater, and thence ac-
by the family in mourning
% the burying ground on the family es-
ate, twelve miles from Sweetwater.
Now, it happened that funeral had
occurred at this same burying ground
ust few days before. 1t was that of
servant Of the Boyd family who had
lied in Sweetwater, and the people of
he place thought it very strange that
he Royds should inter this old negro
n their private cemetery, and should
larry him twelve miles into the country
o do so.
A detective was sent from the Govern
nent Department at Washington to
ook into the matter. They heard the
'umors as to the negro, took up Boyd's
alleged bones and had them examined,
md at the same time opened the old
negro servants grave. Strange to say,
hey found this empty, and the truth
If the matter was that the dead negro
lad been carried to the mountains, his
corpse burned beyond recognition, and
lis bones carted back as those of Thos.
]. Boyd.
In the meantime Boyd had skipped
% Canada, and he was caught i'll curl
ous way. He was living at Toronto,
md no one in Tennessee knew where
le was, when he took n notion that he
would like to hear from home. He
wrote q letter to the Knoxville 4 TibHRc
aging that he was a Canadian and that
le thought of moving to the United
States. He had heard much of the fer
ilities and beauties of East Tennessee,
md had decided upon it ns his prospec-
i've habitation. In the meantime,
however, he would like to have the
Knoxville Irj6aae sent to him for
siven period, that he. might through it
tudy the situation. Boyd inclosed the